Thank you, Madam Chair. I, too, would like to thank the Electoral Boundaries Commission for the report. In that report, obviously, I think everyone is aware, there are three scenarios of moving forward, either 18, 19 or 21.
Unfortunately, this process lacks a real needed effort to put forward constructive opportunity for people of the North to be involved with the building of the nation of the NWT as they advance forward. What I mean is there is a complete lack of
constitutional development for interest to even meddle, perhaps, with how it is that we as Northerners live together here in the NWT.
Constitutional development, in my mind, would define the roles of the central and regional governments and at the same time consider, of course, the recent Aboriginal governments that have made efforts to settle their land claims and become part of the larger mosaic of Canada.
Recently, we experienced the most significant transfer of responsibilities from the federal government to the GNWT. In my mind, that cuts into the vein of how it is that this institution of the GNWT functions as a government.
This is from my perspective. This institution that we value is the GNWT. It is, like colleagues have made reference to, a true political process and, unfortunately, we don’t acknowledge that. We have placed greater efforts in terms of trying to advance how it is that we’re going to live together in the future. Unfortunately, because we have bypassed the process, we’re letting the courts decide how it is that we’re supposed to live together.
Of course, there are some realities. The biggest one is the NWT population has remained the same for some time. That’s a stalwart point of reference. It’s very clear that the population of the NWT has remained the same for some time.
I think what has value, too, is the tribal organizations that regions have been moved into. For example, the Deh Cho First Nations is comprised of at least 10 communities and, of course, they have a common language and cultural kinship. So, in that instance, the geography and location of how they work together is fairly significant in terms of the view of how it is we’re supposed to effectively represent people. For the most part, for my constituents, to get to a community I could spend about two and half hours in a vehicle and visit them and spend some time with them. Of course, they know we represent Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people and we have to speak two languages. We are served by the highway too. So, the point is, the constituents I serve like the accessibility of the MLAs and that we’re available to them to ensure that if you’re a part of this institution of the GNWT, then their voice can be heard in the process.
So at this point, I mean, I know this discussion will continue, but those are just my opening general comments. Mahsi.